Golden Elm

Golden Elm (Ulmus glabra lutescense)
This tree was started from a cutting about 20 years ago.
(Australia has a very poor selection of good material to work with - no imports and very few yamadori)
so we are usually forced to grow our own)
The blank space in the crown was taken up by a branch which died back completely however I am hopeful that a bud at its base will grow this year.

I think that many folks at http://www.ausbonsai.com.au/forum/ would strongly disagree with you.From what I see in that forum there is a whole movement towards collecting and growing Australian trees.Please check it out.BTW,I love the tree.I didn't see it with the now dead branch.But are you sure you should be missing it so much?

I think the gap left behind is a good thing for the look of the tree.

Precarious wrote:I think the gap left behind is a good thing for the look of the tree.

Agree with this sentiment. Too much symmetry is not so good.

Zach

you can stick my opinion in the same column vis a vis the missing branch
(or you can tell me to stick it where the sun don't shine )

geo wrote:I think that many folks at http://www.ausbonsai.com.au/forum/ would strongly disagree with you.From what I see in that forum there is a whole movement towards collecting and growing Australian trees.Please check it out.BTW,I love the tree.I didn't see it with the now dead branch.But are you sure you should be missing it so much?

Hi geo, Yeah I'm on that forum as well. There is a lot of talk about collecting but not much going on. Australian trees are notoriously difficult to dig up and transplant. (there are some exeptions) Also along with the fact that even talk of removing anything from the wild will attract unwanted attention, people are very hesitant.
Onr good thing is that most of our natives grow like rockets so developing from seed and cutting is a viable option. I'm in the process of growing some Leptospermum leavigatum from seed. They should make really nice material.
http://travelwithterryla.blogspot.com.au/2008/11/palisades-park-santa-monica.html

beer city snake wrote:you can stick my opinion in the same column vis a vis the missing branch
(or you can tell me to stick it where the sun don't shine )

That hurts every time. Ouch!

Hello MichaelS:
Funny you should say that.Southern Baja is loaded with potential great stuff as well.But,and it is a big but,desert scrub environment guarantees deep stringy tap roots.So,I am basically on the same ship.The climate is great for tropicals.I just germinated 25 Tamarinds.Excited about that.Yes, things grow astoundingly fast here too.I am a transplanted Canadian.There is absolutely no comparison between what I did with trees in Canada and what I can do here. Cheers.

MichaelS wrote:Golden Elm (Ulmus glabra lutescense)

Sjoe, this is also a very nice combination. The contemporary blue pot is doing wonders for the tree me thinks. And your tree is absolutely grea

I think you guys in Australia have the most wonderful selection of Indigenous trees for bonsai, and if I lived there I would do nothing else than Indigenous, all your Bottle brushes and Melaleucas and Acacias.....and Eucalyptus ...ufff now my mouth shes watering...

Has anyone a Australian Baobab bonsai that you know of? I think Adansonia gregorii will grow much quicker and respond better than its Madagascar and African Baobab cousins..

Love and Light

[quote="Andre Beaurain"]

I think you guys in Australia have the most wonderful  selection of Indigenous trees for bonsai, and if I lived there I would do nothing else than Indigenous,  all your Bottle brushes and Melaleucas and Acacias.....and Eucalyptus  ...ufff now my mouth shes watering...

Has anyone a Australian Baobab bonsai that you know of?  I think Adansonia gregorii will grow much quicker and respond better  than its Madagascar and African  Baobab cousins..

Hi Andre, many Australian tree are short lived (fast growing) especially Acacia. Melaleuca is very good as are some of the bottle brushes (the ones with short flowers) Eucalyptus - difficult and still in the experimental stage.
The Baobab has leaves way to big and is rather gortesque for a bonsai (but that's just my taste)
I am working on quite a few natives and I will post some pics as they start to develop.

After a brutally dry and hot summer. (Still hot!)
Any way it's showing a few signs of being tired and needing a good sleep but the burned leaf tips kind of make it look real I think. Defoliated twice this year..




From lower down:




From higher up:




Small ''trunk'' Bark starting to crack.




Roots:

Very fine.I have liked it since you first posted it.I also think the loss of that crown branch was a good thing.Hope it has a great dormancy!Love the pot too.

yeah... in leaf, the small opening left by the missing branch is visually appealing...
i think the crown would almost look too full if that area was filled in.

(are we now flogging a dead branch ? )

at any rate, it is a dynamite tree.

Nice tree. You have done well with it. Very pleasing image.

Very nice Mike, very nice indeed. Excellent in fact.

By the way, would that be a variety of Wych Elm do you know? I think Glabra is what we call Wych Elm here in the UK but there are so many varieties that pop up as bonsai it's hard to follow. Obviously it makes no difference in the sense that whatever it is, it's obviously working for you in your climate but I'm trying to increase my knowledge of Elm varieties. Not least because I have several and I'm not really sure what some of them are.

Regards

Richard

Its a nice Elm, sky blue pot works well with the colour of the foliage too.

Richard S wrote:Very nice Mike, very nice indeed. Excellent in fact.

By the way, would that be a variety of Wych Elm do you know? I think Glabra is what we call Wych Elm here in the UK but there are so many varieties that pop up as bonsai it's hard to follow. Obviously it makes no difference in the sense that whatever it is, it's obviously working for you in your climate but I'm trying to increase my knowledge of Elm varieties. Not least because I have several and I'm not really sure what some of them are.

Regards

Richard

Yes apparently it is a variety of the Wych Elm Richard. You're in the UK right? You probably know more than I do. I know this one does not have the ''wings'' on the branchlets like some do.
As an interesting side note, Golden ems were widely planted here some decades ago. Now there are some massive ones huge rounded crowns. Apparently after seeing one of the bigger ones, a Japanese crew came out here to film a commercial with a Japanese girl on a swing under the tree.  It just HAD to be that tree!

Thanks Mike, the whole Elm classification business confuses me. Over here we appear to have English Elms, Scotch Elms, Field Elms, Wych Elms, Smooth Leaf Elms and others (Huntingdon Elm for example) but for all I know these might be different names for the same tree.

The scientific names don't seem to help much either (English Elm is frequently referred to as Ulmus Minor, Ulmus Minor Minor or Ulmus Procera). I guess it doesn't really matter, all seem suitable for bonsai and judging by your beautiful example Ulmus Glabra can be added to the list.

Regards

Richard